Craniotomy is a procedure during which a surgeon makes a bone flap and removes it temporarily to access the brain during surgery. The bone flap is formed by first drilling plurality, usually two to four, of spaced-apart bore holes though the skull of the patient and then cutting through the bone between the bore holes using a saw. At the end of the procedure, the bone flap is replace and reattached to the skull, however the bore holes seldom heal and provide no protection to the underlying brain.
Such bore holes that cannot heal can be filled using autograph, allograph or synthetic scaffold materials. Scaffold strategies involve providing metal meshes or porous ceramic materials. Current strategies using metal mesh do not induce tissue healing. Currently used ceramics are utilized only to provide osteoconductive support but will not provide fixation of the bone flap to adjacent cranial bone. Most commonly, the bore holes are left untreated.